Facebook rolls out the GIF button for comments to all users

Reply threads on Facebook are about to get a lot more animated. To mark the 30th anniversary of the GIF format, all users will get the new GIF comment button that Facebook began testing three months ago. Facebook also announced that almost 13 billion GIFs were sent on Messenger over the past year, with 400 million GIFs sent just on New Year’s Day 2017.

The GIF button lets people search and post GIFs from different services, like Giphy and Tenor, directly in the comments box (on desktop browsers, the GIF button also displays trending GIFs, just like in Facebook Messenger).

Facebook added GIF support two years ago, but until now users had to enter the URL of a GIF hosted somewhere else. The GIF button makes the process a lot easier, especially on mobile. It’s currently only available for comments, but Facebook may eventually also make it available for News Feed posts because user demand for GIFs shows no signs of abating.